CES 2012: NETGEAR Press Conference Coverage

NETGEAR has announced a variety of new devices and technologies today at CES.

First on the list is their Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender. It is designed to work with an existing network and greatly extend the WiFi signal both on the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz frequencies.

Next up is their Media Storage Router. It comes standard with a 2TB hard drive, and is designed to be used both for media streaming (it is DLNA enabled), as well as using it for remote FTP using NETGEAR’s ReadyShare Cloud system. It also comes with two USB 3.0 ports to add additional storage. It is based on the N900 Dual Band WiFi router to offer NETGEAR’s highest quality router features.

They also announced the NeoTV Streaming Player designed to make any TV into a "Smart TV", as the box includes streaming from multiple providers such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.

It also includes both Android and iPhone apps to allow users to use their phones and tablets as remotes. It also allows the user to mirror content wirelessly from a computer to a TV using Intel WiDi.

We detail more of the Netgear press conference on the next page… NETGEAR showed off the new Powerline 500 Nano, which is significantly smaller than their previous Powerline models. It also allows up to 500 Mbps connection over the power line. NETGEAR also introduced a mobile app to administrate all aspects of a network using a sleek GUI, this is in addition to their existing desktop application. This app also allows to user to log into any connected TV on the network and play content using the app’s remote.

Possibly the most signifcant announcement was only briefly mentioned, which was the promise that NETGEAR would be releasing routers supporting the 802.11ac protocol, allowing up to 1.35 Gbps wireless speeds. They also mentioned that upcoming Powerline models would support more than 1 Gbps speeds.

Lastly, they annoucned their vision for "Smart Network", which will allow apps to be developed for their router adminstration GUI to allow for various extra functions, such as sharing printers, sharing media content, etc.